Friday, August 09, 2013

Arty Farty Friday ~ Pop Revolutionaries

Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein were two of the best known names in Pop Art, a genre which emerged in the 1960s. Whether one looks on their work as true art or simply a quirk in art's lifeline, it's not easy to discount their influence. Adjectives such as radical, revolutionary, eccentric abound in articles about these artists, and their styles. We might expect to see Aquarius prominent in their charts - it isn't, there's no planet in Aquarius in either natal chart. Uranus then?

No Aquarius planets, but there are a few significant similarities.


The chart shape in both cases is a "funnel" or "bucket", with one planet out on a limb, as a "funnel" or "handle" acting, astrologers say, as conduit for the energies of the rest of the chart. In Warhol's case it's Saturn, in Lichtenstein's it's Uranus. Saturn and Uranus are traditional and modern rulers of Aquarius respectively. Something else, too - in each case the "funnel" planet is within 6 degrees of South node of the Moon - one of the sensitive points in any chart.

Both charts have Grand Trines involving Uranus. Sun/Saturn/Uranus in Fire for Warhol. Pluto/Uranus/Venus in Water for Lichtenstein.

Uranus was in Aries when Warhol was born, it trined (harmonious aspect of 120*) his Leo Sun. When Lichtenstein was born Uranus lay in Pisces and it trined(just) his Scorpio Sun. These Uranus related coincidences must surely be more than mere chance?

If a birth time for Lichtenstein were known other similarities might emerge.

EXTRACT, for full piece see here.

"Warhol revolutionized the Pop Art Movement by transforming average, everyday items such as soup cans into celebrated works of art....... His eccentric persona attracted many celebrity writers, actors and artists, and his popularity rose to cult status.

Roy Lichtenstein tried many artistic styles including abstract expressionism, the dominant art movement of the 1950s, before experimenting with budding pop art imagery, his interest in the style of cartoons motivated him to create his signature technique, which incorporates Ben-Day dots, lettering and speech balloons juxtaposed with vibrant primary colors. Lichtenstein worked exhaustively finessing his signature style through painting, printmaking and sculpture.

Many commonalities exist between Warhol and Lichtenstein. They both explored similar themes in their work including comics, advertisements, politics, portraits and nature. In particular, both Warhol and Lichtenstein used the process of printmaking, which mimicked the commercial sources of their imagery and allowed the artists to easily create multiple pieces."

I've also read that Lichtenstein and Warhol collected each other's work.

ANDY WARHOL













ROY LICHENSTEIN




6 comments:

mike said...

Another fellow came to mind while reading your post, Twilight. Peter Max became a popularized POP artist concurrent to the artists of your post.

I just looked at his astro data:
http://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Peter_Max

He, too, has a signature trine involving Uranus. And the funnel with Mars-Jupiter conjunction as the handle. I looked-up the definition of funnel to see if it could include more than one planet and it seems it can.

I don't have the time to scan other POP artists, but maybe you're on to something!

Twilight said...

mike ~ I didn't know of Peter Max, but from his work, seen just now via Google Image, he's definitely of the same ilk as Warhol and Lichenstein.

Thanks for the astro information on him.

I teased my memory for other pop artists I've featured over the years and came up with two more:
both Richards.

Richard Hamilton and Richard Lindner - I'll leave the links to earlier posts. Hamilton, sadly, has died since I wrote the post on him.

http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2010/07/arty-farty-friday-richard-hamilton.html


http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2009/11/arty-farty-friday-richard-lindner.html

While the same kind of formation as those in today's post isn't apparent in their charts, there's still prominence, in one way or another, of Uranus and/or Aquarius.
:-)

JD said...

Robert Hughes once referred to Andy Warhol as "...one of the stupidest people I have ever met in my life."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUh_NSpiTsY

:)

Twilight said...

JD ~ Interesting link - thanks.
I was ready to dislike Robert Hughes
(I reckon art critics, not lawyers, need to be strung up "after the revolution") ;-)
But I got quite a good feeling from him - on this showing.

I'd say that Andy Warhol was different, peculiar, but in no way stupid. Clever enough to have become a household name, anyway, which Robert Hughes isn't - not in this neck of the woods anyway.

mike (again) said...

Get the popcorn ready...from the comfort of your sofa, you can visit Warhol's grave site via live cam 24-7:

www.warhol.org/figment

If this link takes you to the home page, the "Figment" link is on the left side and down a couple of lines. Enjoy the solitude!

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ Oh my! That's kind of creepy, and amazing at the same time. :-)